Family Law: A Very Short Introduction

Citation

Herring, J. (2014). Family Law: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

The book is number 379 in Oxford's Very Short Introductions series and runs to about 118 pages: a brief introduction, seven topic chapters, a closing chapter on the future of family law, a guide to further reading and an index. Its author, Jonathan Herring, is a Fellow in Law at Exeter College, Oxford, who works in family law, medical law and criminal law, and who also writes the longer textbook Family Law (Pearson). The publisher describes a book that explains not only what the law is but why it is the way it is: how the law has had to respond to social changes in family life, from rising divorce rates to surrogate mothers; how family courts deal with the disorder of family life while struggling to keep up with social and scientific change; and what families and the courts may face in future. The description begins with three questions: what is a family, what makes someone a parent, and what rights children should have. Terms that recur in the text, according to the list of common phrases in the Google Books record, include English law, same-sex marriage, civil partnership, cohabitation, pre-nups, surrogacy, adoption, best interests, welfare, autonomy, human rights and the Supreme Court.

Introduction

A short opening that sets out the questions the book addresses.

Marriage, civil partnership and cohabitation

At about twenty-five pages the longest chapter, on the legal forms of adult relationships: marriage, civil partnership, and couples who live together without either.

Domestic violence

About fifteen pages on the law's response to violence and abuse within families.

Divorce

About ten pages on the ending of marriage.

Parents

About fifteen pages on who counts as a parent in law, one of the questions the publisher's description highlights.

Children's rights

About twelve pages on what rights children have and should have, the third of the publisher's opening questions.

Child abuse

About thirteen pages on the protection of children from abuse.

Alimony and financial orders

About seventeen pages on money and property when relationships end.

Where next for family law?

A short closing chapter, about four pages, looking at the future: what families may look like and what new dilemmas the courts may face.

Key Concepts

Adult relationships

• Marriage and civil partnership: the formal legal statuses available to couples, including same-sex couples.
• Cohabitation: couples living together without marrying or forming a civil partnership, and the more limited legal recognition they receive.
• Divorce: the legal ending of a marriage.
• Financial orders: the court's powers to divide money and property, and to order maintenance, when relationships end.

Protection from harm

• Domestic violence: abuse within the family and the legal remedies against it.
• Child abuse: the protection of children from harm within the family.

Parents and children

• Legal parenthood: the question of what makes someone a parent in law, made more complex by developments such as surrogacy, which the publisher names among the social changes the law has had to address.
• Children's rights: the claim that children are rights-holders, not only objects of their parents' care.
• Best interests and welfare: the standard that guides decisions about children.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Short and focused on the reasons for the law. The publisher stresses that the book explains why the law is the way it is, not just what it says. In about 118 pages it gives readers a framework of questions to bring to longer textbooks.
• Written by a family law specialist who also writes a major textbook. Herring's longer Family Law appears in the same course list, so the short book previews the approach a student will meet at greater length.
• The main topics of a course in one place. The chapters cover adult relationships, domestic violence, divorce, parenthood, children's rights, child abuse and finances on breakdown, which together correspond to the main areas listed for the longer family law textbooks in the course.
• Looks forward. A closing chapter considers future families and new dilemmas for the courts, which helps readers see the law as changing.

Limitations

• Out of date on key reforms. Published in 2014, the book predates major reforms in England and Wales, including the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020, which introduced no-fault divorce, and the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. The chapters on divorce and domestic violence in particular must be read with a current textbook.
• Very brief treatment of some topics. Divorce gets about ten pages and the future of family law about four, so the book is an orientation rather than a source for examination detail.
• Mainly one jurisdiction. Recurring terms such as English law and the Supreme Court suggest that the law of England and Wales is the main reference point; readers elsewhere will need local sources.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is the shortest book in the family law list and a starting point for students before or at the very beginning of the course. John Eekelaar's Family Law and Personal Life is the other introductory book, but it approaches the subject through themes of personal life (power, rights, respect, responsibility and community) and argues for a particular view, so it suits a reader who already has the outline that Herring's short book provides.

Herring's own Family Law is the natural next step: a full textbook by the same author that combines the law with the debates behind it. Cretney and Probert's Family Law is a course textbook that sets the rules in their social and historical context, and Bromley's Family Law is a detailed account for reference and depth. Claire Fenton-Glynn's Children and the European Court of Human Rights is a monograph on Strasbourg case law about children, useful after the chapters on parents, children's rights and child abuse.

How to Use This Book

No legal training is assumed; the book is written for general readers as well as students. It suits students about to start a family law module, students in neighbouring fields who need a legal outline, and anyone curious about how the law treats families.

A practical plan:

• Read it straight through before the course begins. At about 118 pages it can be read in an afternoon or two. Keep the three questions the publisher puts at the front, about what a family is, what makes a parent and what rights children have, in mind through the course.
• Use it as a map. The chapters follow the main topics of a family law course; read the matching chapter again before each block of the course to recall the central question before the detail.
• Update every chapter. Check divorce, domestic abuse, cohabitation and financial orders in a current textbook, since the law in England and Wales has changed since 2014.
• Use the further reading to move to longer works, and the closing chapter on the future as a starting point for essays on reform.